Imposant masque planche féminin "bedu" · Côte d'Ivoire, Nafana · ID: 3043630
Description
wood, polychrome paint, plant fibre strings, min. dam., traces of insect caused damage, cracks, paint rubbed off.
The Nafana are an ethnic group belonging to the so-called Senufo Cluster, living in the border land between the Ivory Coast and Ghana. A now defunct prototype of “bedu” was encountered in 1889, called “sakrobundi”, the cult was suppressed for apparent “exploitation” of villagers and went underground. The “bedu” cult when it appeared about 1930, “dealt with positive issues” - such as human fertility, prevention of epidemics and internal social control - and was thus apparently tolerable to the colonial administrators. “Bedu” masks appear as male and female pairs, the males often having large, incurving horns above the facial plank. Maskers come out principally in the evening during the “zarau” festival, dancing gracefully (the female) or brusquely (the male) and touching women and children to bestow curative and fertilizing powers on them. These performances bless and purify the community.
L’objet Imposant masque planche féminin “bedu” avec l’ID d’objet 3043630 a fait partie de l’enchère 88e vente aux enchères Tribal Art en 10 mars 2018 pour la dernière fois le Zemanek-Münster Hôtel des ventes et avait le numéro de lot 217.
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Littérature comparée
Kreamer, Christine Mullen, African Vision, Washington 2007, p. 62, ill. 22
Publications
AHDRC: 0150464